May 13, 2013 3:24 PM

Hi everyone. I am 50 years old, and started the couch to 5 K programm a bit over 3 weeks ago. I ran a bit when I was youn ger but never for a very long stretch. I am not in great shape, but not terrible either: I am 5'11" and weight 175 pounds. I don,t smoke, I play golf, bik a bit and do a bit of ski in summer.

I picked the programm because it was very gradual, and followed it closely. I started with very good but older running shoes, and a couple of week ago went to a runner shop and bought a good pair of Saucony. I always streched before and after the trianing. I took things very easy, slow jog, things were going well and I was very motivated. Then I started feeling some light pains in both kees after week 2. At my age, I kind of expect some level of discomfort picking up running, so I carired on.

I changed my running technique (I tend to hit heavily on the heel, causing the knee problem) to spare my knee, ans started jogging more on the mid and front of my foot. I then got pretty sore calves, again, painfull but not unbearable. I tried to do extra stretch of the calves. But in the middle of the third week, I started feeling a pain on my left hip joint. The last time I ran, last wednesday, it was pretty bad, and it got a lot worst after. In the follwinf days, I was walking with a big limp, having quite some pain on my hip koint and a bit behind it. No pain when I am not moving.

I took time off, have not ran since, ad am taking Aleeve twice a day. The pain is slowly going away but is still there.

Any advice as to what caused it and how I can prevent it from happening again would be greatly appreciated. I am feeling a bit discourage at the moment, because, I thought motivation might be my problem, but it was not, i was actually looking for my run every second day. I took things super easy, on good shows, and still manage to hurt myself.

Sounds familiar! I am wiling to bet that when you are sitting and you go to raise the leg attached to your sore hip it really stabs right in the hip joint...like a firey knife, right? If so, your hip flexors (you have two in each leg) are probably irritated or inflamed. I was about a year into my program (53 years old, 6'3" 180 lbs or so) and I had wonderful new shoes, but gradually wore them out and went to buy a new pair and found out that Nike had discontinued them.....rather that writing Nike and asking them, I went to a local running store and asked them what the closest shoe to what I had that Nike still made....bad idea. The new shoes caused immediate problems. I wrote Nike and got their advice on which of their current models most closely matched my old shoes and I went on line and actually was able to buy 2 more pair of my old shoes...it took almost 2 months of NO RUNNING to get my flexors to calm down and and I am gradually getting back into it. I have researched the flexor problem extensively and other than some specific stretches, it seems rest is the best thing....pain willl definitely be your limiter.

No matter how good the shoes, if they don't work for you, they are bad shoes.

Thanks for you answer. I don't think I have the same injury since I do not feel any sharp pain when I lift my leg from a sitting position. Actually, I only feel pain on impact, ie walking, and the pain is more behind the hip then in front.

I will see my GP in a couple of weeks, in the mean time I am getting a massage tomorrow. It has been a week today and I am nowhere near running again, the pain is still there I am really mummed by this, but I know I have to let it heal.

That's the problem with hip pain. There are only about 83 things that could be causing it (rough estimate). I don't have the answer but I hope the docs can help you and it's not a labral tear or anything that requires surgery. On a slightly different topic, heel striking may not have been your problem - overstriding is more likely - planting your foot in front of your body instead of under it. And the problem with changing your running technique is, well, it changes how you run - stride, foot plant, stresses on your feet, ankles, calves, knees, thighs, hips, everything. If you want to continue on that path, approach the change with a great deal of caution. It's too easy to get injured. Good luck with healing and getting back to running.

Len - what do you mean by planting your foot in front of your body instead of under it.....I'm imagining my foot going out in front of me and can't imagine how your foot would be under your body? I think I'm doing something different than I usually do too. I never had such tight calves or sore feet but since I've been training for this Half in June my calves are constantly tight! I wonder if it's how I'm striking.

You have to get a little over 2 minutes into it to see it slowed down. Note how his foot plants almost directly under his hips (the right foot more than the left). Also note the knee is slightly ahead of the ankle. As opposed to overstriding where the foot lands well in front of the body and the ankle is ahead of the knee, often with the knee straight or even locked.

As for your tight calves - have you changed your running to land more midfoot or forefoot (say, instead of heel striking)? That generally causes increased stress on calves/achilles and leads to soreness/tightness. It eventually goes away as your lower legs get used to the change. The problem is you may end up injured in the meantime. I imagine such a change might change stresses on your feet as well, possibly enough to cause soreness.

prplx: I am sorry your hip still hurts and I hope your GP can help you. I have found that a sports doc and sports chiro have been helpful since they see a higher concentration of inhuries directly related to specific activities. I am sure you will find good care. I 'm glad it wasn't a flexor injury as there was almost mothing I could do except rest it and that was aggravating.

I seem to be having similiar problem - maybe it's this. I've been having my sharp left hip pain for at least 4 months now. It's been driving me crazy. I'm pretty sure I have tendinitis...most important is why. I talked it out with a good friend of mine who is a runner and doctor. I believe it's caused from always running on the left side of the road and therefore my left hip is in the rain gutter on low side of the road. I knew better a few years back to switch sides - just totally forgot. So I too having been taking Aleve but since I just recently changed my running location (right and left side,sometimes middle of the road) it will take a while for my hip to heal and the inflammation to go away. It seems to be getting better - I'll know more this weekend after my 10K event. Maybe this will help.

I am 53 and started jogging after 10 years of laziness. Hip pain in left joint started when I got up to about 2 miles per run. After limping for several weeks, I saw a sports orthopedic physician who diagnosed a stress fracture. MRI showed that not to be the case, so then he called it bursitis. I was put on steroids and heat therapy as well as some stretches for hip flexor; but I really think rest and the stretching are what fixed things. I started C25k this spring and was doing well until week 4 when the pain started again, in my right hip this time. I rested 10 days, then started at week 1 again, I have just been repeating the early weeks, and do 2 (sometimes 3) segments at once. I think the intervals are better than just straight running in my case. Don't know if I'll ever do a 5k but at least I'm out there. Hope this helps.

Can I share my experience getting back into running? First, have your stride evaluated at a dedicated running store, and let them help you pick out shoes. There have been so many advances since we were kids. Second, if possible, find a podiatrist that also runs, and keep their number on file. I had debilitating calf pain and ankle tendonitis. I had been on the couch for about a month, with no improvement. A podiatrist and an ortho specialist both wanted to put me in a boot. I heard about a podiatrist in Memphis that runs, and after a 30 minute consultation and xray, I was shown a taping technique that had me running the next day--pain free.

After increasing my mileage, I began to have hip pain. Again, it was debilitating. Long story short, it was a shoe problem, along with IT Band problems. A coach gave me some advice and turned me on to a foam roller. After two weeks of rest, I was back on the road. My good ortho (that sent me to the running podiatrist) gave me a book put out by Men's Health and Runners World, called beat any injury. Get it. Read it. Do the excercises. Thank me later.

I would take hip pain very seriously. I am a runner, have been for much of my life though I took time off when I had my kids. Got back into it last summer and while training for a half marathon, I had horrible hip pain. Like you, it caused me to limp while walking and was painful while running. I rested for about 10 days, the limp was better but it still hurt to run. I ended up going to a PT for an injury evaluation and they thought it was a problem with the joint. I saw an OS who specialized in hips and he said that I tore the labrum in my hip, which is the cartilage that lines the hip socket. If you continue to run with pain, it only causes more damage. Had surgery back in Nov to fix it, the damage was so bad that he had to remove part of the labrum and create a graft with my hamstring tendon, was an awful surgery. Also had a tear in my other hip that was corrected surgically in Feb. Just yesterday, I had a third surgery, this time on the first hip, because of all the damage I had, it didn't do well after the frat surgery. Now I know there are plenty of reasons for hip pain, but the point of my post is to let you know that you need to take it seriously until you have a diagnosis. A word of warning, many GP's are very unfamiliar with labral tears and can miss it. People go misdiagnosed for years and end up with significant damage. Many physical therapists do free injury screens and treat patients with labral tears and all kinds of other hip injuries so I would suggest asking for a PT's opinion. Good luck!

"I changed my running technique (I tend to hit heavily on the heel, causing the knee problem) to spare my knee, and started jogging more on the mid and front of my foot. I then got pretty sore calves, again, painfull but not unbearable. I tried to do extra stretch of the calves. But in the middle of the third week, I started feeling a pain on my left hip joint. The last time I ran, last wednesday, it was pretty bad, and it got a lot worst after. In the follwinf days, I was walking with a big limp, having quite some pain on my hip koint and a bit behind it. No pain when I am not moving."

This was me exactly a few weeks ago. I believe the hip pain I began to experience in my right hip joint was the result of the change in running technique. In my case, I was moving from a shoe with a 12mm drop to shoes with either a 6 or 3mm drop. When I wore the shoes with less of a drop, in an effort to land on the front of my foot, my running technique (running form) was such that I was "prancing" as a friend of mine put it. I had changed my normal stride such that I was placing my foot slightly out in front of me and pointing my foot so that the front of my foot would undoubtedly strike the ground first.

I didn't run much for a couple weeks and the pain slowly went away. I did ride a stationary bike a few times those couple of weeks and ran very limited, easy miles, mostly on grass. More importantly, I've gone back to my normal running form, normal stride, and the lower drop shoes still have me landing more on the front of my foot without me trying to force it with my prancing technique. The calf pain disappeared as well.

Running with forefoot landing (instead of heel strike) is "pose" running and suppose to be more natural form. I changed to this last year (I'm 50 now). Once you get used to it, it seems to be more favorable to form & function.

Sorry to hear about your hip injury. I can relate, as I've had several. I'm actually seeing my orthopedist on the 4th to check my right hip. I would suggest you ask for an MRI if your insurance will cover it. Last September, I had left hip pain that hurt each time I stepped, especially going downstairs. I thought I was compensating -- I had a tibial plateau fracture in my right leg. The MRI showed that I had actually torn my gluteus medius muscle! Through therapy, Pilates, and running it has strengthened but it is still weak, though not pained. The X-rays taken of my hip (the first thought was a fracture) showed arthritis in my right hip (the one currently aching) and a substantial enchondroma (bone tumor). While my conditions aren't the norm, you might want to ask your GP about ruling them out for you.

While I was training for my recent half marathon, I also had a similar hip injury that you described. I was very upset, because i'm not a new runner and have never injured myself before. It hurt only when i got up out of chair the first couple of steps, and when i took the first few running strides, and then the pain got a little less while i ran, but then worse again when i stopped and walked. I went to the chirporactor, and he told me it could be my piriformis muscle. I also did a lot of research online myself, and started doing all sorts of hip flexor, hamstring, quadricep stretches and also bought a foam roller to start foam rolling all my lower body muscles. The chiropractor did some Active Release Technique (it's like massage and stretching) on me as well. So, between taking a week off from running, doing the stretching and foam rolling, and getting the ART from the doc, it cleared up and i ran my second half marathon even faster than my first! :-)